Everyone was an ordinary student, so why did you get to stand out from the crowd?
Jiang Liu, you've betrayed your class!
"Jiang Liu, where'd you get all those magic artifacts?"
"Jiang Liu, don't tell me you took out a loan to buy Spirit Stones?"
"Taking out a loan just to show off is a bad idea."
"Are those wings attached, or did they grow out of your back?"
Jiang Liu's luxurious gear had left his classmates stunned. They crowded around, touching him all over, until Jiang Liu's face darkened. "Stop plucking feathers from my wings!"
Li Dongze, standing beside him, was on the verge of tears. Look at me! I've got wings too!
He'd also bought the First Recharge deal for the wings, getting a green-glowing magic-rank pair. When he entered the game map, he'd been about to show them off, but who could've guessed that nobody would pay him any attention?
They were one of only two pairs of big wings in the class! Didn't they want to touch them?
"You bought a pair of wings too?"
Jiang Liu was the first to notice Li Dongze's wings. His gaze lingered briefly on the green-glowing pair, then slowly slid away. With a cheerful smile, he said, "You still haven't gotten that mosaic robe fixed?"
Because the robe's textures had failed to load, half of Li Dongze's body was covered in mosaics. He looked even more unusual than Jiang Liu.
"Fix my ass."
Li Dongze sighed. "You think they're going to protect players' interests over a low-grade magic artifact? Forget it. I'll just toss it after a few days."
This kind of low-level bug wouldn't get fixed even in some trash mobile game, let alone in Cultivation Era. They didn't have time for that.
Amid all the commotion, Jiang Liu finally had time to look around the event map.
It was exactly what its name suggested: an abandoned mine. People packed the open area at the starting line, with ashen-gray mine walls on either side rising about twenty or thirty meters. A semi-transparent barrier stood ahead, and beyond it stretched a long path leading deep into the mine.
The path could fit only about a thousand people abreast. In other words, anyone who failed to get a head start at the beginning would probably fall behind and stay behind.
Of course, that didn't concern Jiang Liu. He could fly.
Ten thousand players were running the same course. The school's teachers and students made up a small portion of the participants, and they stuck together. Led by the Principal and the teachers, they'd managed to squeeze their way to the front of the starting line.
Other than the students, everyone else was a nearby office worker. They were too embarrassed to jostle with the students, so they quietly kept their distance.
It had only been a few days since the server opened, so being a student still had its advantages. It wouldn't look good if adults were seen fighting students over every little thing.
Just wait a few more days, and they probably wouldn't care anymore.
I'm a student, so let me go first?
Get lost.
When the countdown ended and the barrier slowly vanished, the crowd surged forward like runners at the start of a marathon. A dense mass of people sprinted at full speed toward the finish line.
The clamor of footsteps echoed through the mine, mingling with laughter and curses amid the chaos.
"I'll go on ahead!"
Jiang Liu called out to his classmates, then pushed off and soared into the air, beating his Soaring Cloud Wings. His gear gleamed like neon lights, and in the blink of an eye, he'd left the main group behind and taken the lead.
But just a few seconds after he flew into the mine's long passage, Li Dongze's cry for help came from behind him.
"Buddy, help me out!"
Jiang Liu reflexively looked back and was instantly speechless.
Li Dongze was lurching along behind him, his green-glowing wings flapping wildly. He bobbed up and down and swerved from side to side, nearly crashing into the mine wall.
"What the hell are you doing?"
Just as Li Dongze tipped headfirst downward, Jiang Liu grabbed his arm. With a helpless look, he asked, "Didn't you practice after you got the wings?"
When Jiang Liu had first gotten his wings, he'd been about as bad as Li Dongze. But after being put through his paces by the Lingyun Sect Outer Elder and the senior disciple, he could now fly steadily.
"I—I'm afraid of heights! How am I supposed to practice?"
Li Dongze clung desperately to Jiang Liu's arm. His face was pale, and his voice trembled. "What do I do? Don't the wings cure fear of heights?"
Jiang Liu: "..."
They didn't have that function.
"Then what are we waiting for? Down you go."
Jiang Liu shook his head and dragged Li Dongze along for a dozen seconds. Once they'd put some distance between themselves and the main group, he unceremoniously let go.
"Good buddy, this is where we part."
"Fuck you."
Li Dongze knew he was slowing Jiang Liu down. After cursing him, he gritted his teeth, shut his eyes, and kept barreling forward.
He refused to believe that with wings and a high-level buff, he couldn't even break into the top ten!
As it turned out, he could.
Among the ten thousand players, only a handful had wings. After leaving Li Dongze behind, Jiang Liu flew straight ahead, his water spiritual energy surging out as he rode the wind and cleaved through the air.
With the hidden attributes of his eight magic artifacts, along with the physical advantage of being at Qi Refining Layer 8, he overtook the winged players ahead of him in mere moments.
He shot past like a hurricane, leaving the person beside him gaping. The man hurriedly called out, "Hey, kid! How are you flying so fast?"
Jiang Liu glanced at the middle-aged man with wings and casually replied, "You'd fly fast too if you were at Qi Refining Layer 8."
The man: "..."
Qi Refining Layer 8? Were students these days all that monstrous?
Soon, after rounding the end of the long straight passage, Jiang Liu spotted the person in first place, only about twenty meters ahead.
"Is that... a person?"
When Jiang Liu saw the leader, his eyelid twitched. A blistering wave of heat rushed toward him.
Twenty meters ahead of him, a blazing ball of fire was flying through the air. Within the flickering flames, he could just make out a human silhouette.
What kind of monster was that?
Jiang Liu froze for a moment. The distance between them closed in the blink of an eye, and as he passed the fiery figure, he instinctively glanced over and blurted out, "Su Weiyang?"
The person inside the flames was the top student who'd held first place at their school year after year.
Within the deep-red flames was a girl wearing a white long-sleeved top and sweatpants. Her black hair fluttered in the fire, and her exquisite face was cool and composed. Her slender, unremarkable figure darted through the air like a fish. Her flying skills, too, had been honed through hard practice.
When Su Weiyang saw that someone could keep up with her, she couldn't help feeling a little surprised. She nodded at Jiang Liu, her voice clear as a flowing spring. "Jiang Liu, from Class Three?"
"Yeah. Wait, why are you on fire?"
Jiang Liu answered, then asked with great curiosity.
He'd honestly never seen anyone fly around covered in flames. Wasn't that hot? What was her outfit made of?
"I glitched."
Seeing that he was a classmate, Su Weiyang didn't bother hiding anything. She explained calmly, "It's a side effect of my Pure Yang Body combining with a Supreme Fire Spiritual Root. I can't put the flames out anymore."
Jiang Liu: "?????"
He understood the side effects of having a Supreme Fire Spiritual Root on its own. When he had a Supreme Water Spiritual Root, he'd poured out water by the ton. It made sense that someone with a Supreme Fire Spiritual Root couldn't stop their flames either.
But what the hell was a Pure Yang Body?
Wasn't she a girl?
Could it be... she wasn't!?
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